The wit and wisdom of the outrageous Brigit Brat
reprinted from the Compost NewsLetter
Samhain 90
A Pagan View Of Death and the World We Live In
The Death Card in the Tarot
The Death card in the Tarot is perhaps the most misunderstood and
most feared card to the first-time reader. The Death card in a reading
very rarely, if ever, means physical death. The actual meaning of
the card is that of radical change or transformation. This is the
view of death held by most "primitive" cultures, that death is not
a definitive end to one's existence and adventures, but merely a metamorphosis,
a transition into another existence. Perhaps the reason humans fear
death so much is because you can never be sure of what awaits you
on the other side of that transitory experience.
Manipulation of this fear
is the building block, the driving force, behind modern religions.
The major selling point of such religions is that if you live your
life according to their wishes, their will, and their doctrine, they
will guarantee you the conditions that will exist for you on the other
side of death. It's like buying a term life insurance policy from
a company that has never had to pay a dividend. A good arrangement,
if you are the church.
Burial Practices and Social
Behavior
If you understand anything about physics, you understand that energy
(or mass) can neither be created nor destroyed, merely changed in
form. If the soul does exist, and it is comprised of some form of
energy, then it stands to reason that this energy will not simply
cease merely because the physical body no longer functions. Where
does that energy go? I don't know; no one does. Cultures have long
devised theories about what happens to the soul after the body reaches
its end. "Primitive" cultures believe that it went back into the mother
Earth to be reborn (hopefully into the same tribe among other familiar
souls); these beliefs are reflected in the behaviors, attitudes and
life-styles of these peoples, just as out current beliefs are reflected
in ours.
Primitive peoples identified
with the life-death-life cycles being exhibited all around them, the
seasons changing and determining life: Spring, when life arose from
the mother Earth; Summer, when the new growth became ripe; Autumn,
when the life either was harvested or died only to return to the earth;
and Winter, the Death-sleep season when all lay quiet under a blanket
of snow, and when in fact new life was being created under the ground
(in the belly of the mother/Imbolg.)
Modern peoples with their
modern theology see existence as linear. You are born, you live, and
you die. Then you are judged by some great Father image (conveniently
removed from the Earth itself) who determines where you will spend
the rest of an incomprehensible period of time called Eternity (big
payoff at the end of the game, but only if you win.) Even our commonly-accepted
burial practices reflect this linear vanity. We humans like to think
of ourselves as above all other living creatures, and, in fact, this
rock that we happen to be using; so much so that we have removed ourselves
from the food chain, the cycles of life and death within the Earth.
Upon death, the body is preserved as if its former occupant plans
to re-use it at some future date, and placed in a casket and perhaps
even a cement vault. The food value of that person's body is lost
to the Earth forever. It makes one wonder if the planet may, at some
point, experience a sort of "chemical starvation" from being deprived
of the nutrients it has been forced to invest in its human inhabitants
for countless generations.
Death is an element which
has been routed out of our daily existence. We have no more holidays
for the dead in our culture such as Samhain (Halloween) was for the
Europeans. We try not to think of death, and when the subject is addressed
it makes the average person quite uncomfortable.
People in our society are
not prepared for the eventuality of death. We are isolated from the
experience itself. A person dies in a nursing home, totally removed
from the family, and upon dying the body is whisked away to be prepared
for the now-present relative. The body is drained and refilled with
preservatives, dressed and made up, all to present the appearance
that the loved one has not actually departed, but is merely sleeping.
I feel that this facade actually makes it harder for the surviving
friends and relatives to accept the reality that the person has died.
The Death Card Revisited
So, what do we know about death? Not very much. The only thing we
can be certain of is that it will be like nothing you have ever experienced
before, You may approach it with fear and dread, or armored with the
heroin-sweet promise of a paradise/resting grounds; or as shown by
the card Death, as a powerful transition into another form of existence.
The lovely and talented Ms. Brat